Weigh-in, 2nd fill, and the pouch test

My laptop power adapter finally gave up the ghost, so I managed to change my tickers on Thursday before the battery died, but didn't have time to post or catch up on most of y'all's blogs. I'm borrowing my dad's computer while I visit, and hopefully when I get back home my new adapter will have arrived from Amazon.

As of Thursday morning, I'd lost the .4 I'd gained the previous week. The pound that left after my binge-y days came back for a bit, it seemed. No worries, it's better than gaining, and things are back on track regardless (though unofficially via the scale).

I had my second fill Thursday afternoon, and Dr. Ganta, for all his conservativeness surgery-wise, is not so conservative with fills, it seems. YAY!

Another 1.5cc, bringing me to 5.5cc in my 10cc band. I decided to start the 5-Day Pouch Test coinciding with my fill, so I'm finishing up day 2 this afternoon. Going back on liquids has been rough, but the scale is already showing the results.

I weighed yesterday morning at 200.0 (SO close!!!) and it wouldn't budge even though I tried it 5 or 6 times, LOL! I'm at my folks' place with my kids for the weekend, and my mom's scale at 2:00 AM showed the same stubborn 200.0. ARGH!!! heheh

By 8:30 AM, I'd apparently peed away the rest of the day's "food", and her scale shows a wonderful 198.6 !!!!

We'll see if it sticks officially by Thursday, but it was SO nice to see a glimpse of Onederland - finally!

Thursday evening, I also went to the bariatric support group meeting at the hospital for the first time. This month's topic was skin changes, which have been becoming an issue for me, so I was definitely curious about how people have been dealing with it. The group was by far composed of mostly people who are new to their surgery (within 2 months), though there were a few folks who are several months to a year out from their surgery date.

The skin discussion was interesting, but the group director separated us into men and women, so that limited the experienced folks to two in the women group, so it wasn't as informative as it could have been, IMO.

Then we were broken into groups based on type of surgery, so then of course I was over to the bandster table. At that table, there was one woman who'd gotten her band almost a year ago, a guy who got his in January, a woman who was considering it, and several women who were banded in July. And me. :)

Everyone was sort of befuddled by my stats, because of how I approached things before surgery, but that was OK once I sorted out the numbers. It was kind of weird, though, because from the perspective of food intake, journalling, exercise, etc., I definitely ended up falling into the 'experienced' category, but from the perspective of dealing with the band itself, I'm still a newbie too.

I was really hoping to pick up some new ideas for lunches to take to school and for some thoughts on restriction in general, but I really didn't come away with anything useful at all.

The woman next to me at the table went off on all her candy and dessert making recipes (NOT band or diet -friendly in any way, but apparently of much interest to the rest of the table -- huh?!?). And then folks started trading potato soup, pasta casserole, home made ice cream, and peanut butter cup recipes.

Now, I can appreciate recipes and lust for home-cooked comfort food and decadent desserts as much as the next fat girl. I can wax poetic about my favorite foods with the best of them. ;)

But this was a BARIATRIC WEIGHT LOSS support group. The suggestions I got for packed lunches included quesadillas, wraps, tomato soup, and sandwiches. SO not helpful for someone who is struggling with keeping complex carbs to a minimum, who wants to avoid slider foods, and who trying to keep to her surgeon's recommendations for protein intake. *sigh*

Maybe next month will be more useful.

But based on this month's experience, the support network of you bloggers and the rare people I know who have lost large amounts of weight (and kept it off) via surgery or other methods is probably going to be more effective for me than this group.

I'll give it another shot or two and then make a final call. I really want to see if there are members who are long-term band success stories that might have something more pertinent to contribute.

Ah, I can't wait to start day 3 of the pouch test. Because I started it at noon on Thursday, it'll be cottage cheese or eggs for dinner tonight -- woohooo!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!!